Il bilancio di sostenibilità, il bilancio integrato e la dichiarazione di carattere non-finanziario

[Autom. eng. transl.] In the light of what is discussed in Chapter 8 on direct accountability tools, the following paragraphs will discuss the three most widespread and most structured socio-environmental reporting tools to date, as well as supported by national and international standard setters or by the Italian and European legislation in force: the Sustainability Report, the Integrated Report and the Non-financial Statement. For the first two, yes deals with socio-environmental documents disseminated globally, supported by international guidelines such as the Global Reporting Initiative Standards, for the Sustainability Report, and the Integrated Reporting Council Framework, as regards the Integrated Report . In Italy, these reporting tools are voluntary and to date there are no specific regulations, laws or other binding obligations that require companies to prepare and publish these documents. However, this characteristic of voluntariness has not prevented these from becoming in a short time widely diffused, studied, adopted and known instruments. The non-financial declaration is a social and environmental reporting tool imposed in Italy on certain types of companies by Legislative Decree no. 254, in implementation of Directive 2014/95 / EU of October 22, 2014. The Decree does not oblige companies to follow certain national or international guidelines or reporting frameworks, but explains a series of issues that must be addressed and investigated in the document itself. The mandatory nature of the preparation of the Declaration, albeit only for larger companies, represents a significant step, both from a legislative and a non-financial reporting point of view; in fact, it involves a significant number of companies, which since the exercise financial year 2017, are obliged to report and communicate socio-environmental data and information, thus guaranteeing, at least hypothetically, an increase in the level of transparency and a consequent reduction in the information asymmetry between companies and stakeholders.